visit Halfpenny Home Website

Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Summer of FUN at HH HQ

It's been a hectic six months at the shop, moving and keeping up with everything that's going on has been hard work but so much fun...we've had hen parties like the one Aimee threw for her friends and family to get to know each other - they had great fun sipping bubbly as personal and touching works of art were produced which Aimee is to make into a quilt for her home.

We then had our long planned charity tea party in aid of National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, a charity dear to our hearts - I will post more photos and details about it on my own blog soon.

A massive thank you to all at Sweetpea and Vintage for allowing us to invade their home and lovely garden and making so many cakes! Loads of people crafted items for the raffle and we raised £430 on the day with even more donations still coming in! We also aimed to raise awareness of some of the difficulties faced by people with this painful and incurable condition.

Thank you too to all who came along or donated raffle prizes, cake ingredients and money!

Hot on the heels of the tea party we had the Strawberry Fair at Alder Carr Farm, a brilliant event with loads of new visitors to the farm and excited people stumbling across Halfpenny Home for the first time...we crocheted strawberries, made strawberry pom poms and pincushions!

We're almost back to normal this week with workshops resuming and even though it's summer we're still knitting and LOVING the West Yorkshire Spinners yarns - excellent value British wool, reared, sheared and spun here!

We're using them in the sock knitting workshops which start this Sunday, three Sundays of sock knitting and at the end of the three weeks you'll have a pair of socks! Sundays 6th, 13th and 20th July £60 and everything is included, theraputic cake is applied regularly...*two spaces are left*

One of my favourite workshops is the Free Motion Machine Embroidery, we have two more planned at present - Sunday 3rd August and Saturday 30th August, unleash your inner artist!

There are spaces on each of these dates but they are strictly limited to four spaces for each date!

I know that you can buy nice knitting bags and rolls for your evergrowing collection of needles but surrounded by gorgeous fabrics and ribbons takes it's toll on the willpower and lo, a workshop is born!

Knitting Needle Roll, a stitchery workshop suitable for absolute beginners! Sunday 27th July £35 11-3 make one for yourself or the knitter in your life?

Seasonal Dyeing with PLANTS...not the wishy washy colours you would expect! As well as indigo we love to dye with the reeds that grow here on the farm and if we time it right the colour we get is a rich pistachio green...two dyeing dates in August where the effect mordants have on the finished result and how to dye safely - Sundays 17th and 31st August 11-3 £35 and you can dye a skein of yarn and a piece of fabric or a silk scarf. Spaces go fast for this one each year so don't leave it too late to book!

About Me

Halfpenny Home is open Tuesday through to Sunday 10-4 at Alder Carr Farm, Creeting St. Mary, Suffolk IP6 8LX. You can phone the shop on 01449 721123 or contact Nic on 07887511081 email - halfpennyhome@googlemail.com
Nic Gouldsmith started Halfpenny Home in an old soap factory in the small Suffolk town of Needham Market and very quickly became the place to go for hard to find crafting sundries and haberdashery supplies. After just over 4 years in the soap factory HH HQ moved to the dream location on Alder Carr Farm! The new and shiny HH HQ is now housed in an old windmill which for many years was used as a dovecote - the nest boxes are still in place and now are filled with ribbon, fabric and buttons!
With help from a few of Nic's creative friends HH HQ runs a very varied list of fun workshops where you are sure to produce something beautiful and have a lovely time...we also have rather a lot of tea and homemade cakes!
Enjoy reading about everything that happens at Halfpenny Home and there are also some rather pretty photos, please do ask for permission first before reproducing them anywhere - it's always nice to hear about where they will pop up!
Nic x